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WASHINGTON — An Arizona sheriff on the front line in the war on Mexican drug violence yesterday called for Attorney General Eric Holder to be fired over the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking operation.

“There is only one word to describe it: reckless!” Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu declared on the Fox News Channel.

Pressure has quickly mounted on Holder about the screwed-up gun-sting operation, in which federal agents lost track of thousands of firearms sold to Mexican drug cartels, including guns linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is expected to issue subpoenas this week for Obama administration officials to appear before the panel.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) also has petitioned President Obama to name a special counsel to investigate whether Holder lied to Congress about when he first learned about the program.

The thousands of high-powered assault rifles and other military-style firearms, which were bought with taxpayer dollars, ended up in the arsenals of deadly drug gangs in Mexico.

Holder insists he didn’t know about it until it was too late, and Obama says he has “complete confidence” in Holder.

Babeu said the scandal confounds the argument once made by Obama and Holder that lax US gun laws fuel drug violence on the border.

“Now we find out that it was them. They have been facilitating weapons — semiautomatic, fully automatic AK-47s and 50-calliber sniper rifles — into the hands of the most violent criminals in North America,” he said.